Michael Jordan explained that his massive NBA fame caused a “burden” in his life and ultimately was a reason he retired from the sport in 2003.
During a recent interview with CBS Mornings, Jordan looked back on his illustrious career — winning six NBA titles and achieving two separate “three-peats” — and what drove him to seek a “quieter life” outside of basketball.
“When I say I wanted to retire and get to a quieter life, I wanted to get away from basketball in terms of what I represented in that arena and how big I’d gotten,” Jordan, who is considered the greatest baskbetall player of all time, told CBS’s Gayle King while at Phoenix Raceway.
“It was such a huge burden for me in that sport. Here [in NASCAR], the burden is not quite the same. It’s something that I think that keeps me alive and vibrant.
“The burden of living a certain way, trying to maintain whatever everybody’s perspective is for you or was for you. That is a burden. And it’s a lot of people that have to endure it. And at some point and time, you say, I’m tired of doing that.”
Jordan, who has lived a private life after hanging up his jersey for good, co-founded the NASCAR team 23XI Racing with Denny Hamlin in 2020.
The 63-year-old Chicago Bulls legend has been in the spotlight recently as his team is dominating this season, winning four of six races thus far.
Jordan explained that he thinks he’s “cursed with this competitive gene” that has taken over everything he does — even at home.
He joked that he races his wife, Yvette Prieto, to see who could shower and get dressed first.
“Anything that I do is from a competitive lens and in some ways that keeps me young that keeps me aggressively [and] thinking positively,” Jordan said. “It helps me understand everything that I’m involved with or connected with… I think my appetite to prove as a kid created this competitive thing within me that has transcended and taken over everything that I do.”
When asked if he misses basketball, Jordan said: “100 percent. It’s a huge piece of me [that misses basketball] but I’ve compensated that feeling through NASCAR and fishing.”
A two-time Olympic gold medalist, Jordan also earned the title of NBA MVP five times, is a six-time NBA Finals MVP, a 14-time NBA All-Star and a three-time NBA All-Star MVP. He also made the All-NBA First Team 10 times and is a nine-time NBA All-Defensive First Team honoree.
He won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award in 1998 and was named NBA Rookie of the Year in 1985.
Jordan was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as an individual player in 2009 and as a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic Team in 2010.
